A friend of mine that I went to high school is a-as I think he’d put it-leftist. His political philosophy either borders on or crosses socialism, and we agree on very little. Yet his arguments are always rational, backed up by a lot of research, and for the most part free of any emotional attacks. Would that more of my liberal-minded friends would follow that example.

Anyway, he posed the following question on Facebook yesterday:

My conservative friends, I have a serious question for you. One thing I think we can agree on is that capitalism creates and sustains hierarchy (quintessentially, CEO vs. worker) as well as developing a permanent unemployment rate (capitalism cannot and does not sustain universal employment). Obviously, we cannot all be CEOs with those attendant advantages. Given an idealized society, free of racial, gender, and other relevant biases, what, if anything, would you have society provide for those on the bottom of that hierarchy? In short, what would your sense of humanity require of society?

I’d have thought I was a lot more neoconservative…hell, defense/national security issues are what led me towards the GOP in the first place. And I wouldn’t consider myself that big of a social conservative.

So, to my few readers…does this sound like me? Feel free to compare to my political philosophy (under the “Dillard Doctrine” tab).

It’s Juneteenth! Did you hear what the Republican Party of VA had to say about the holiday?

Yeah, I didn’t either.

Well, surely the first African American head of the RNC put a statement, video, or something to mark the day, right?

Yeah…no.

But, wait…this is the Party of Lincoln! You know, guy who freed the slaves? You’d think that same party would be all over today and putting together as much fanfare as they could. Do we as the current crop of Republicans not remember-or worse, know-our own history?

Selectively so, it would seem.

These are the details that kill the GOP’s perception in the black community (and kudos to Bob McDonnell for trying to get it right). There’s something fundamentally flawed-and strategically stupid-about a group of people that uses ending slavery as its biggest selling point blowing of a holiday that celebrates the same.